This Is Us MVP Sterling K. Brown would be the first to tell you that the last thing he ever expected was to be famous — never mind so famous that he’d end up being interviewed for The TVLine Podcast as one of our Dream Emmy nominees. “I always thought that I would just be working in obscurity in perpetuity,” he admits to Executive Editor Kimberly Roots. Like, “‘You’re that guy from that guest spot!’… or ‘I loved you on Supernatural!'”

Luckily, the Emmy winner (for American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson) sounds like he’s adjusted beautifully to his now-extremely-high profile. Take, for instance, his sweet reaction to being approached by fans of his hit NBC drama or his gratitude for the public service that the show provides by allowing a nation divided to, at least for an hour each week, “say, ‘It’s not us vs. them, this is us — we’re all in this together.'”